The big winner today appears to be - Ron Paul. As chronicled in my "CD4-" Tweets above, Weld County's Santorum delegates appear to reveal a flocking to a non-Romney candidate, and Gingrich ain't it. Only two national delegate candidates even mentioned Newt. The bizarre confluence of events has led strongly conservative voters to line up behind, of all people, Ron Paul!

I see no reason why the same pattern would not, will not, play out in the other Colorado Districts as well as the remaining states. Tampa could well see a historic nomination play out, from worst to first. That would really put the "anybody but Obama" meme to the test.

Help me out with this - delegates first ballot votes at the national convention go 100% to the winner of the state primary election regardless of personal pledges. If there's no winner on first ballot then additional ballots are held, in which delegates are free to vote for anyone.

The Newt surrogate at State Assembly pointed out that Mitt still needs 60% of the remaining delegates. He's still the odds-on favorite but it's not yet a given that Mitt will be the nominee.

I'd be satisfied with any GOP nominee. I must say I'm astonished at how readily the Santorum delegates aligned with Ron Paul. I'm not sure whether they are sincerely for Paul or just using his supporters to accomplish a brokered convention.

And a point of clarification - When I wrote "Help me out with this" above, that really was a question. I'm not sure that the delegates are obligated by the state primary vote and I'm still trying to confirm that. It does make sense, though, or else why have a primary election?

I'm really starting to wonder if there will even be a Colorado primary election, at least with presidential candidates on the ballot. This guy says delegates will vote as currently pledged:

Todd King of Lewis, Colorado is one of the elected delegates from that slate. King is a Ron Paul supporter and will vote for Paul for president on the first ballot in Tampa. I asked him how the 17 unpledged delegates break down. This is his statement.

Interesting. I confess I expected a primary just because we've had them before.

Posted by jk at April 15, 2012 8:59 PM

Interesting. I confess I expected a primary just because we've had them before.

Posted by jk at April 15, 2012 9:00 PM

I was actually making a joke about not being a primary. I know there is one because I've seen it on the June page of the Colorado GOP Calendar. Turns out it's just for everything EXCEPT the presidential nominee.